<p>I just went through this process last year with my son, so I will tell you what I know.</p>
<p>Semifinalist is still a great honor, especially his score, which is very high. There are about 16,000 semis. They are allocated by state, so the cutoff varies by state. Semis from states with lower cutoff scores are sometimes scorned by those from more competitive states, but your son's score would qualify from any state in any year.</p>
<p>The Semis go through an application process to become finalists. Almost all semis become finalists (15,000 of 16,000). Basically you just have to get your school's endorsement (so don't have a discipline problem), do well on the SAT (will not be an issue), and have good grades (not as high as you might think). Your counselors should guide him through the process.</p>
<p>The Finalists then compete for 2,500 National Merit Scholarships. That sounds exciting, and when my son won it I was pretty excited. But, it is only a one time award of $2500. Worse, they do not even announce the winners in time to influence college admission decisions. It was in time for him to come off the wait list at schools like Northwestern and Georgetown. But, other than prestige, the benfits of the scholarship are limited.</p>
<p>The other finalists are eligible for scholarships from other institutions. Corporations sometimes offer them to employees' kids, and many colleges offer them also. Almost all of these are for modest amounts.</p>
<p>There are, however, a few colleges who still "buy" higher end students by giving finalists robust packages. The links others gave you are good lists. By defintion, however, the schools who offer these packages are not "first tier" schools, whatever that means. They are, of course, excellent colleges where your son could get a great education at a very low cost and have a great time. I would consider them if you are very worried about money. </p>
<p>If your income/wealth is limited, the elite schools do offer very strong financial aid programs. These schools generally do not offer merit scholarships at all (exceptions, of course). You should go to sites that have estimators of what they call EFC (Expected Family Contribution). There is a formula they use to caluclate the same number you did ($6000). Their number will almost certainly be higher, as they expect you to endure some pain, which is fair if they are picking up the rest. Look for schools that "meet full need," which is a defined term and means they will put together a package to cover the rest. The only catch there is that some of them use excessive amounts of loans in the package and still claim to meet full need. </p>
<p>Lastly, many schools have half tuition or full tuition programs that are not directly linked to National Merit, but are based on strong scores and grades. As with NM scholarships, the higher end the school is, the higher the numbers need to be for them to be interested, and as I said, elite schools generally have little merit aid. I would point out Southern Cal in this category and others will have other ideas. There is a list of some of them in this forum in this thread: Institutional Merit Based Scholarships (Full Tuition +). </p>
<p>Congrats to your son and good luck. Being a couple of years ahead of you, I can tell you that we wound up spending FAR more than we thought we could afford. It is tough, but I have no regrets. He is very, very happy and is at a great school.</p>